“Jimmy kept smiling. For a while he stared down at the photograph, his eyes were bright, then he shrugged and said, “Well I did-I burned it. After Lavender died, I couldn’t. . . This is a new one. Martha gave it to me herself.” The section takes place after the war, although it is very short it has a big impact on the story. In past Jimmy burns his photo of Martha, after Lavender dies. But this conversation between Jimmy and a friend (it is unclear who he is conversing with in this section) he tells a story of how he and Martha met again at a school reunion. They spent all night together. During their night together he mentions the burning of the photo, so Martha offers another photo to replace it. For Jimmy this new photo represents a fresh start. Although it reminds him of the war, he is reminded in a way that he knows the events cannot be recreated, so he needs some kind of reminder of what really happened during the war. They may not be happy memories, they are memories nonetheless, and sometimes we need to be reminded of the bad times so that we can grow out of them.
I like how you described the new photo as a fresh start for Jimmy, but also as a way to learn and grow from his experiences, both good and bad.
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